The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-05-21
last nights campfire. Everywhere
ruin and bloodshed marked the
trail, and in few, if any, cases did
they show fight. But every strag-

UllCy 01OW ASAUs OA1 OsVAy osA06
gler, every belated scouting party
was ambushed remorselessly. And
the outlying settlements of Kim
berley had to be abandoned en-
tirely, everybody moving inside the
great corral in the center of the
town. Here, day and night, dur
ing the "siege," as it was called,
for a couple of months, gambling
of all kinds, drinking dancing and
even more offensive amusements
have borne witness to the general
Generalization.
Finally the blacks were driven
away. Since then an armed patrol
has been on duty every night
around Kimberley and numerous
encounters have taken place, with
more or less loss of life, between
the blacks and the miners.
From Kimberley all the dia-
monds found in the Vaal valley are
shipped. The depot Of Orange val
ley is much smaller, but these two
points between the years 1867 and
1881 alone exported $2OO,OOO,OOO
in diamonds. After that the pro-
duction fell off, but with the last
year or two it has been greatly in
creased, and the discovery of the
new fields some distance down the
valley has started another big boom
for Kimberley-or had started it,
rather, until the situation of the
blacks became 50 serious. Some of
the most famous Kimberley dia-
monds now know to diamond ex-
perts all over the world are the
following:
The Dudley, or Star of South
Africa, is chiefly notable from the
fact that it's discovery marked the
beginning of the development OF
the diamond fields of South Africa.
1t was found in 1867 by a black,
who sold it to Dutch settler. The
latter discovered it to be genuine
diamond and of eighty-three carats
i'm weight. 1t was reduced to forty
six and a half carats in cutting
and polishing, and was afterwards
sold to the Earl Of Dudley for $11, ),
200. 1t is a triangular stone OF
great brilliancy and perfectly col
0rless. It's present owner had II
mounted with ninety-fve smaller
brilliants as a coronet, thereby Civ
ing full effect to its beautiful form
and splendid lustre.
The Stewart was discovered in
1872. 1t weighed 1854 carats in
the rough and lao carats after cut
ting. Like the majority of South
African diamonds, it has a light
yellow tinge, but its crystallization
is very perfect. Until the discov
ery of the Porter Rhodes stone, in
1880, this was the largest diamond
ever discovered in South African
fields. The Porter-Rhodes is
blue and white stone, weighing l5(
carats.
The Porter Rhodes, which take'
it's name from its owner, was dis
covered in 1880. 1t is yet uncut
and is valued in its present condl
ton at 100000. 1t is called tn
blue-white diamond, of pure water
and of great beauty. Its weight i
$50 carats. 1t differs materially
from the majority of the stone
found at the Cape, which are ordin
arily of yellowish lustre.
The deposit in which diamond
are found here is an upright mas
of steatite or soapstOne clay, som
200 yards wide, with a superficial
area of nine acres. Sticking up al
through this mass are foun'
throats or pipes of the steatltt
through which the volcanic matte
containing the diamonds have bee
elected. The surrounding sand
stone, which protects these chin
neys," is entirely barren of dia
mond. The claims are laid ou
thirty.one feet square. and al
worked down to a depth of 400 fee